Are the Tears we shed at Funerals simply a Selfish Act?

I ask this question because it is often the phrase uttered by those that attend the funeral that the one who has passed on left them.  That there was so much left unsaid and there was so much left to do.  We talk about how wonderful that person was and how much they are going to be missed.  We talk only of all the good that they done and hold tight to the old adage “never speak ill of the dead”.  We pretend that things would have turned around if they had stayed on earth just a little while longer and we make promises to them to remember the good times and take heed to the lesson that they taught us.  Some people even go as far as to say to the departed how they will change their lives and dedicate this change to their memory.

While all that sounds good and would make excellent drama on television, one has to wonder just how truthful and unselfish it really is.  I mean just a few days before they died, were things really good between you?  Did you not ignore their advice and lived your life as you saw fit?  Did you not tell them then how special they were to you and how important their existence was to your wellbeing?  Or did you curse their names and swear never to speak to them again because of what you think that they did to you? Was all that was not said, not said because you figured that as soon as you felt forgiveness in your heart for them, you would forgive them?  Did they really leave you or had you left them some time ago?  You can still respect that old adage of never speaking ill about the dead but not because it is an old adage and the proper way to act.  Do it because it is simply and plainly the right thing to do.

The Bible say rejoice when a loved one’s dies but society says that you must show reverence toward them by attending their funerals and weeping for the loss.  So who do you listen too?  Man’s idea on what to do and how to feel about a loved one leaving this earth or God’s directions.  Personally, I saw we all need to heed the words of the Lord.  I challenge all to pick up their Bible or borrow one if you have to and read the entire chapter 5 of 2^nd Corinthians.  After reading it, know then that an earthly death is not the end of a loved one.  Know then that if you truly loved them, you would be happy to learn that they may finally get the chance at real peace, love and joy.  You will finally learn that they will never leave you and only await your arrival.  That is if their existence here on earth was doing right by God.

Consider 2^nd Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 1 which tells us exactly why we should rejoice about the passing of a loved one.  Why forgiveness should be something we do now before they leave so that they carry with them no regrets.  We ourselves should not fear an earthly death because the same that awaits them also awaits us.  That we should not fear any man, woman or child because they can only bring to us an earthly death but cannot touch our souls and the reason we should fear only God is because only he can bring death to the soul.  It reads “for we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, meaning when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven and an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands”.

So you see dying here on earth only allows us to finally shed this earthly body and don our new heavenly body made by God himself.  We now remove our souls from this feeble and inferior shell so that we can finally enter our rightful form.  We die here on earth but if we lived as close to what God demands of us as possible, we shall never die again and stand to be resurrected in this new body right along the side of Jesus Christ forever and always.  No more pain, no more suffering, no more sinning and no more dying.  Only life, real life, an eternal life promised and delivered but only after our task here on earth is done.

I no longer fear death and I can now rejoice when a loved one leaves before me.  I will always feel sorrow and wrestle with the sin of feeling selfish in their death but I will never again display that selfish behavior because I know that if they lived as we make them sound at the funeral, they have shed their earthly body for the heavenly one and that is something we can be proud of about and for them.